The Fires of Hell

In his booklet for children titled, The Sight of Hell (Dublin: James

Duffy, [1874]), English Roman Catholic priest John Furniss (1809–1865)

illustrates the eternal torment by means of a great solid-iron ball, larger

than the heavens and the earth. “A bird comes once in a hundred mil-

lions [sic] of years and just touches the great iron ball with a feather of its

wing.”—Page 24. Furniss argues that the burning of sinners in hell continues

even after that iron ball is worn away by such occasional feather touches!

The sad thing is, many Protestants even today believe in something

similar for the lost.

Read Malachi 4:1 and Jude 7. How can these passages help us bet-

ter understand the notion of “eternal fire” or the idea, as Jesus

expressed it, that the lost will be in “ ‘everlasting fire’ ” (Matt. 18:8)

or in a “ ‘fire that shall never be quenched’ ”? (Mark 9:43, NKJV).

The word “eternal” (Hebrew ‘olam; Greek aion, aionios) carries differ-

ent meanings, depending on the immediate context. For example, when

associated with God (Deut. 33:27, “everlasting”), the word expresses

His eternity. When related to human beings (Exod. 21:6, “forever”), the

word is limited by their life span. When qualifying fire (Matt. 18:8, Matt.

25:41, “everlasting”), it implies that the fire will not go out until it fully

consumes what is being burned. This means that the “eternal fire” will

be eternal in the sense that it will consume the wicked completely and

irreversibly, leaving them “ ‘neither root nor branch’ ” (Mal. 4:1, NKJV).

The theory of an everlasting punishment of the wicked has serious

implications. If the wicked are punished forever, then evil will never

be eradicated. Also, all human life derives from God (Deut. 32:39, Ps.

36:9), who has “ ‘ “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” ’ ” (Ezek.

33:11, NKJV). Why then would He continue to grant life to the wicked

to suffer in endless torment? Would it not be much more reasonable for

Him just to end their existence? If the wicked will be punished “accord-

ing to their works” (Rev. 20:12, NKJV), why then should a short human

life be punished endlessly?

All Bible references to the “eternal fire” should be seen as allusions

to the postmillennium “lake of fire” of Revelation 20 (see lesson 13).

Thus, it is unbiblical to speak of an already-present, ever-burning hell.

As unfortunate as the fires of hell are, what does the truth about

hell reveal to us about God’s love, especially in contrast to the

idea of eternal torment?